


McCrank's Lullaby

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Dig (Video Games)
Genre: Dig 2 Spoilers, Dig Spoilers, Don't copy to another site, Fluff and Angst, Gen, mostly angst though, yes it says major character death but it's a peaceful one from old age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 05:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19144687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: A story of an old lullaby getting passed from one generation to the next.(Ties in a bit with Sei-Bellisima's fic, Connecting Dots.)





	McCrank's Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> CHOO CHOO ALL ABOARD THE FEELS TRAIN!!
> 
> The last scene of this story probably only makes much sense if you've read Connecting Dots by my friend Sei-Bellissima, but at the time of writing this, she's only posted up through chapter three. Go read it anyway because it's really good: <https://archiveofourown.org/works/14932601/chapters/34594910>
> 
> Also, this fic contains spoilers for both Dig games (the sequel moreso).

Cranky padded over to the crib and took the fussing babybot out. She was clean and didn't need any water; it seemed she was just upset. It was the middle of the night, but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to be there for his daughter. He was all she had.

He carried her over to the chair and sat down with her. The physical proximity was already starting to calm Dorothy down. Cranky began humming a soft little lullaby, one that had been in his family for _at least_ three generations. If it had ever had words, they had been long lost to time.

It wasn't long before the little bot had fallen asleep, settled comfortably on Cranky's chest. It looked like he was going to be sleeping like this once again, but he didn't complain. Dorothy wouldn't be this small forever--he'd might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

* * *

It was just supposed to be a simple repair on the pneumatic tube system. Damn Shiners, having to ruin everything...Cranky was going to be out of commission for a while, not to mention that he was down a leg now. At least Joe had found him and brought the rest of him back to the surface.

Now Cranky was stable and safe and he could just rest. It also meant that Dorothy could be with him, the poor child was shaken by the whole incident. According to Joe, she had cried the whole time Cranky was under emergency repair. Not being good with kids (aside from his nephew), the experience was extremely draining for Joe and he was all too relieved to return Dorothy to her father. She had immediately curled up to Cranky and not moved since. They both needed the comfort right now.

Dorothy began humming. It wasn't her normal, absent-minded humming, though--she seemed to be trying to follow a tune. Not one she could remember clearly, which seemed to bother her.

“Wha'ssat, kiddo?” Cranky mumbled. He was still a bit out of it.

“I'm tryin’ t’ hum that song ye hum t’ me when I'm sad,” she replied.

Of course! Why hadn't he realized that sooner?

She started humming again, and when she got stuck, Cranky jumped in and hummed the next few notes so she could copy the melody. Soon, it just turned into them humming together. It created such a soft and calming feeling.

* * *

One of the last senses to fade away when you die is your sense of hearing. That’s what’s believed, anyway.

It was a random fact that kept running through Dorothy’s head. Cranky was dying. She knew that it was his time to go, and there had been no denying that the time was coming soon for a while now, but it still hurt deeply. Despite this, she was determined to be there for him in his last moments.

Dorothy held her father’s hand and found herself out of words to say. She didn’t think she could talk without crying, anyway--her face was already streaked with tears. So she hummed. She held his hand to her forehead and hummed the song he had hummed to her ever since she was a baby.

She wasn’t sure of the exact moment her father passed, just that he was still there when she first started humming, and that at some later point, she returned to reality enough to realize that Cranky was gone.

* * *

Dorothy tucked away the wrinkled “Missing” poster and gazed into the campfire. She’d been on the road for...a few months now? The days and weeks all blended into each other, it was hard to keep track of time. Especially when she spent part of that time underground in the mines. No wonder Rusty lost track of time so easily down there…

She missed him. Dorothy was the sort of ‘bot who _couldn’t_ be by herself long-term; the loneliness would eventually crush her spirit. Hope may be a dangerous thing, but it was one of the only things keeping her going right now.

She took the poster back out and hugged it close to her chest. She began humming the little song she had learned from her father so long ago. She missed him too, but Cranky wasn’t coming back and she had accepted that. Mostly. It wasn’t the same, humming the lullaby to herself instead of someone humming it _for_ her, but it was the only form of comfort she had right now.

A few tears slipped down her cheeks.

* * *

Shards of the planet’s crust splintered off from the core as the terrain cracked and shook. The world was never going to be the same, but that was rather obvious in this situation.

Dorothy tore her eyes from her view of the scene to look at her friend. Rusty was half-conscious and settled firmly against her side. (They hadn’t broken contact since she rescued him.) His head bobbed--he was too exhausted to really pay attention to what was going on but too rattled and upset to sleep.

Rusty pulled his bandana over his jaw and pressed himself against Dorothy’s side. He was definitely taking advantage of the fact that he could curl into himself now; he had been restrained in such a way that he couldn’t for several weeks. Dorothy hugged him tighter in response and began gently stroking his arm. Without really thinking much of it, she began humming to him. He relaxed and eventually began softly snoring. Given the circumstances, he slept rather soundly.

Over the coming days and weeks, Dorothy would hum her family’s lullaby to him a lot, to help him sleep or to ground him whenever he had a nightmare or to comfort him when he was just unhappy.

* * *

Rusty sat near the edge, hugging his legs and shaking a bit. Deep down in the fissure, Dorothy was half-squished between the two asteroids. They weren’t quite sure how to go about retrieving her (or even if it was possible). What he _did_ know was that she was conscious right now and utterly terrified. Even without a long-term plan, he could still be there so she knew she wasn’t by herself. At least he could help _somehow_.

However, he couldn’t safely stay in her sight without risking the integrity of the rock and by extension risking Dorothy’s safety. The stress of the ordeal had left him unable to form words, so he couldn’t talk to her either. Rusty being there didn’t do her much good if Dorothy couldn’t tell that he was still there.

Thinking hard, he recalled the tune Dorothy had been humming to him lately. Rusty knew that it’d been in her family for a long time. It was new to him, but focusing on the notes was something that helped him relax so he learned it quickly (although he hadn’t tried recreating it himself yet). With a good deal of care, he began to hum the tune, loud enough for Dorothy to hear down in the crack.

Dorothy clung onto the melody like the lifeline that it was.


End file.
